I had a Viking D1 and then a Viking SE I loved the automatic foot lift, When I stopped stitching the foot automatically lifts so I can turn....and if you go a slower speed, it would lift just a little after each stitch so it was super easy to do curves and wonderful for applique. Then I got a Bernina with the BSR and it did not have the auto foot lift but came with the knee lifter....took quite a while to get used to it and I really missed the automatic foot lift I had on my Vikings....But I ended up really liking it after a few months of getting used to it....now I have a newer Bernina that I can program the automatic foot lift into ...I think they call it hovering, and now I do not use the knee lifter very often but I still use it a bit....mainly I think to get the foot raised higher than the autolift does....so...if you do applique at all, and your machine has that knee lifter, I would highly recommend you give it a try..so nice to be able to have both hands on your fabric and not have to stop and reach for the foot lift lever.....